Assignment 1: Learning styles

Working in a team this semester to develop a business proposal it is important to understand how every member of the team works and realise what people's strength are to develop the best possible concepts.

Taking the learning styles survey allowed me to understand how I operate and how best I work within a team. I am an Activist.

Angela Davis. Actively involved in the economic, racial and gender equality in U.S.A.

Acting on a gut instinct and are enthusiastic about new ideas. Getting stuck in, they are not likely to prepare for learning experiences or review afterwards what they learnt. Working better with others, activists enjoy being thrown in the deep end into solving problems.

Activists are also described as people who do not enjoy listening to lectures or following rules. They do not understand things easily on their own, such as reading, writing and thinking...These were the results given by the survey and although I agree with a few of the points made, most of them I disagree with.

Missing the beginning of our group meetings due to my Erasmus exchange in Belgium, I had to come in a little later and understand myself what category each person within my group fell into. Straight away it was easy to see who felt confident about sharing their ideas and those who preferred to listen to others. All of these different qualities that these members possessed were important for the skill set required to complete our objective. Working off one another, the whole mixture of personalities really work well together within the group environment.

With thanks:
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.b-sidenation.com/images/bsidepics1/angela%2520davis1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://colorsinfluence.blogspot.com/2009/01/writer-activist-angela-davis-comes-to.html&usg=__7pjJnH1rpnnprftKPL94eQ6588c=&h=366&w=443&sz=49&hl=en&start=0&sig2=6XXXcmK0DXIz1d5vToOx0g&zoom=1&tbnid=GZkWUJlV_r1pIM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=162&ei=d_yBTbOnIoeVOryDjdYI&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dactivist%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1264%26bih%3D569%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=370&oei=ZPyBTfGpOJDXsgbtl7mIAw&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&tx=90&ty=75

Assignment 3

Mind Map with my crazy thoughts.

A meal of haggis and tatties later and we were all set for the next group meeting to discuss further the topic in which we wanted to continue with for our dissertation proposal.
All of us decided to continue with the same topic that we had picked originally but shift our focus to a specific area. Mindmapping the ideas again allowed us to add more information to the mind maps we had previously created. Using these as a starting block, now after looking at the topics in more detail we were able to discuss points in greater detail.

Talking initially about everybody's idea individually we soon ended up mixing between the topics as many points interlinked with one another and all seemed to relate in someway. We found that many issues we discussed were ones that also appeared in the book we read last year as part of Design Studies called "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. One part that particularly interested me last year was the chapter called 'The Power of Context' which conveyed how powerful a context can be on an individual and how it can make us respond in a specific way. One of the ideas that Gladwell talks about is 'The Broken Window Theory' which argues that fixing the smaller things within an environment can stop criminal acts from happening - just one of the points that I can explore further...

Discussing some points with the group before hand,
and afterwards with our mindmaps...

Sustainability

We have now been given the next part of our brief for our sustainability project where we have to renovate a run down house for a client called Emma Fraser.

Emma is a book restorer who is looking for the house not only be her home but a place she can also work from with a studio space and reception area where she can deal with clients. It is really important that we understand all Emma’s needs as this is a place that she would theoretically spend a lot of time.

Meetings with the client in person allowed us to get to know her a bit better and understand what sort of job she does and the things that she requires. Asking questions from what materials she liked to what does she likes to do in her past time, we were able to gather a rough idea of what she would and wouldn’t want from the house and getting a general feel for her needs. This was useful but when Emma talked about all the equipment that she used for restoring the books it was hard to imagine what these looked like and how big they were…next came the visit to the lab she works in. It was really good to actually see the equipment rather than just visualising it and estimating roughly how much space it would take up within the studio. Taking photo’s and asking yet more questions we were able to step into Emma’s life and get yet another insight to the way she worked. The part I found particularly beneficial to look at was the desk where she worked at. Here I was able to see how she liked to organise things and set things out when she was working, something that I just wouldn’t have got from a question and answer session.

This is really relevant just now with the assignments that we are doing in the Design Studies part of the course – getting to understand the people we are designing for. It’s been helpful for me for the two to be running along side each other and some of the skills that I have already learnt doing the previous assignments have proved useful when conducting this new brief. I have been able to apply new skills that I have learned practically in this project so far to the Design Studies assignments and gained a greater understanding of how much you need to get in the mind of the client. Book restoration is nothing that I know about but after quizzing and looking at how the client works, I feel I know enough now that I can begin to design a space most suited to her. Take this afternoon for example, while travelling back on the bus home after getting a tour of the lab I tried to place myself in Emma’s shoes. The studio will be the main part of this project as this is the place that she would spend the most time during the day (Emma stated that most likely it would be 9am-5pm) so it will be important to consider certain issues of comfort: height of the desk, width of the working desk, the light that would enter the studio (this is very important to take into consideration for restorer’s as the light can interfere with the books), where the machinery would be placed within the room, etc. With so many things to think about, the way in which I was visualising things allowed me to start thinking about possible design solutions.

Meeting with the client is such a useful process for me (even if the project will not really go ahead) because I am getting used to working with a real life client and designing for them. The process behind this project is a good way to learn more about working alongside the client and listening to exactly what they need and want.

After completing the first part of the brief, (refer to earlier blog - A picture can tell a thousand words (series9)) I didn't understand how beneficial this part of the project was until after this week. This week we focused on trying to get into the mind of client, before we were actually working like the client would be (okay so maybe not exactly!). I found myself sprawled out over my bedroom floor - constantly trying to find more room to do my work - a problem that might be similar to Emma. It wasn't until now that I realised how helpful it was to actually practically get involved in the thought process that we need to undertake.

With thanks:
http://www.helensanderson.com.au/images/Gallery_Rm8/w99_open_close_book.jpg

Understanding Bourdieu (literally)

Understanding Bourdieu, WEBB, SCHIRATO & DANAHER

I enjoy reading, but I’m finding that the texts we have to read for Design Studies to be rather difficult to take in. Sometimes I can read a whole page (and sometimes even a whole chapter) and couldn’t even tell you what I had just read.

To solve this problem, I decided to read a small bit and write about it, read a bit and write, etc. This means that I can think about what I’ve just read and put it into my own words and if I really haven’t understood anything I can go back and re – read it, without realising this after ten pages.

The first time I read the Bourdieu passage I suffered from this same problem. The only time I seemed to understand bits was when there was a mention of football and when he only mentions this once, you can see my problem.

Bourdieu is interested in the culture of design asking questions like why do people buy certain products and how does the product they buy help them?

Describing culture as a game, Bourdieu encourages us to embrace this and our understanding on how to play it. He highlights the fact that the social and political context in which we are placed in changes the ‘rules’ slightly and designers have to consider this carefully when designing. Last semester, as part of one of my assignments, I looked at ‘The Power of Context’ where I learnt quite a lot about the context in which we are placed in and how that in turn affects things like our personalities and our reaction to design. As a designer it is important to take every aspect of the client you are designing for into consideration.

Something that Bourdieu mistakenly does, and that John Frow points out, is to treat people as though they ‘belonged to a single class’. He argues that Bourdieu forgets you cannot possibly place for example a football fan, a ballet dancer and Jazz specialist in the same field. Although are all part of the creative field, I doubt you would find a football fan interested in ballet and Jazz, and vice versa so depending our tastes and influences we are organised into social groups.

Evaluating the ideas behind our acceptance to art, Bourdieu asks why is it that some people are more comfortable to talk about art than others? Again referring back to context, he explains that people who are brought up around cultural things like art and fine music are more ‘natural’ when presented with them. What about the people that create this art in the first place, what sort of response do they want to provoke from their audience?

Dividing the field of cultural production into two parts, autonomous and heteronomous poles, we are educated in the difference between the two. I had to re – read this section so many times to understand it but I think I may have understood it, well I hope I have…

The heteronomous pole aims to achieve “commercial success”, where, to me, they are complying with demands from others and not really doing what they want to do or possibly don’t believe in.
The autonomous pole of the field demonstrates that people working in this part are resigned to the fact that there reward won’t always mean finance. They can do what interests them, not restricted with their outcome and can aim at a specific group of people rather than creating a generalised response to something to please a wider niche.
If you really want to make a living in this field it is more than likely that you will have to give into the demands of the general public and conform to what they want to see, which I think is a shame. Or your work will have to be recognised as excellent before everyone follows the herd over. Surely art should be something that the artist chooses?

Back to the real world

First week has just finished after coming back from the Christmas holidays and already there is so much to be done.

In class we have a new project called "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle."

This is a 12 week project aiming to educate us as designers of our disposable culture and how we can incorporate eco - friendly concepts into our designs without comprising the finished quality.

Broken into two parts, the first part of the brief focuses mainly on 'upcycling', a term used to describe something that has reached the end of it's service life and has been created into something with a higher value.
This first week has been a research week for us, working in groups on the specified subject we were given. Using this research gathered, the aim of the first part of this project is to create a 'book' that has been upcycled and portrays our thoughts about environmental design.

Environmental Design
What does this mean to you?

Starting with a big mind map to help get our 'creative juices flowing', we were able to shout out ideas as soon as they came into our heads. Splitting environmental design into three parts: materials, products and buildings, each member of the group focused on one area (two members focusing on the building section as we felt this was a rather extensive part to research).

With our research gathered, our next task was to create a method in which we could talk about our findings with the rest of the class. We decided to do this through Powerpoint, a little obvious but none the less still an effective way to convey our ideas.

Here are a few examples of the kind of things that we found:

I was able to create this page in the Powerpoint very quickly as I had referred to this building in an earlier post I made on my blog. This proposed building would be able to power itself and ten times over, rotating around a central axis.

A prototype capable of switching off all nonessential electrical equipment to save power.

These towers have been positioned so the turbines gain the maximum amount of energy from the wind.

This week we also had our first Design Studies lecture. Already there is lots of work to do and lots of reading. I decided to create a to do list with things that I wanted to do and found that I ran out of space...

Visual Literate?

An experiment in our Design Studies, pick a word for each category: person, emotion/action & possession.

Mother of three, running & television.

The most obvious could be the mother is chasing after her three children because they are all misbehaving so to get some time to herself she puts them in front of the television...too obvious?

How about a single mother of three lives in a run down area and can't afford to feed her children. In an attempt to put food on the table she tries to steal a television in exchange for money but in the middle of the burglary she is disturbed and forced to start running away.

By changing the perspective a little we are made to see things in a new light. We as designers need to be able to look past the obvious and look at an object in a different way -sometimes ignoring past experiences.


With thanks:
Photo: http://www.getrichslowly.org/images/burglary.gif